Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Analyzing Nigeria
is arduous if you seek to speak truth to power. Many Nigerians, mostly the
leaders and elite make speeches unceasingly. Such conventional speeches tend to
be largely rhetorical. And together, the analysts, the religious, the political
leaders and the disenfranchised populace have all become “miserable comforters”
of a nation in distress. As asked in the Holy Book: “Will your long
winded speeches never end?”

*Buhari

Nigeria remains the classical
outlier nation state. Thus in resignation many Nigerians have thrown in the
towel. Some have fled, finding refuge and succour in foreign lands. Yet, many
remain, having no option; and some remain to capitalise on the leadership and
general disorder in the commonwealth. The latter seek to foster legality from
illegalities with the intent to benefit from it.

But there remains one
constant. Like Fela Anikulakpo Kuti averred presciently, the state of the
nation is nothing but “Confusion” as “Everything Scatter.” As another
contemporary musician, Eedris Abdulkareem put it: everything in Nigeria
is “Jaga Jaga.” And this brings me to how those charged with minding
President Muhammadu Buhari are managing his wellbeing or as some say, his
health issues.

First, President Buhari is not a private citizen. While he is entitled to
some privacy, Nigerians who elected him have the right to know of his wellbeing
and the state of his health. He is the CEO of corporate Nigeria, and
his wellbeing affects our stocks and holdings. Nigerians are not interested in
his minders including the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and media advisers
telling us that the president is “fit”, “alright” and “that there is no cause
for alarm.” The president did the right thing in devolving power to his
deputy. That is constitutional. But Nigerians behold a Deja vu moment. If they
are doubtful they have good reasons. Nigeria needs to hear directly from
her leader, President Buhari, in accordance with the oath of office he took.

My friend, Femi
Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media has characterised the present reality as
“imperfect” but conditioned on “exigencies of the moment.”

He is doing his best
in an awkward circumstance. Well, we recall the uncertainties and
unpleasantness that led to the “doctrine of necessity” and do not want to
revisit that episode under any pretext. Perhaps, Mr. Adesina should have a chat
with his professional colleague, Segun Adeniyi on this and related
matters. Nigerians don’t want to be fooled. If President Buhari could
speak to President Donald Trump, he can speak to Nigerians. The facilities
exist.

The recurring ugly
decimal of premeditated brutalisation of Nigerians, by South Africans in their
country has become a handshake beyond the elbow, calling for a vicious
wrestling combat. That, in itself is a most unfortunate development. What with Nigeria’s famed
Big Brother role in the African continental politics and economy? What about
spearheading the struggle to free the country from the iron-grip of the
blood-letting and asphyxiating Apartheid policy that claimed some 21,000
innocent lives, going by statistics from International Human Rights
Organisation (IHRO)?

*Jacob Zuma and Muhammadu Buhari

It therefore, smirks
of gross ingratitude, quite antithetical to the African Union Charter and the
much-cherished African traditional ethos of hospitality that Nigerians should
be at the receiving end of the transferred aggression of the same South
Africans! According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Ikechukwu Anyene,
President, Nigeria Union, in a telephone call from Pretoria confirmed attacks on members and
looting of Nigerian-owned businesses in Pretoria West on Saturday.

In his words: “As we
speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been
looted and burned by South Africans. One of the buildings is a mechanic garage
with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the
attack. The attack in Pretoria West is purely xenophobic and criminal because
they loot the shops and homes before burning them. Also, the pastor of the
church was wounded and is in the hospital receiving treatment.” He said that
the union had reported the incident to the Nigeria mission and South African
police.

In the wake of the
Acting President’s recent media-advertised visits to the Niger Delta, a
highly-placed Nigerian posed a question to me as a suffering indigene of the
exploited and oppressed zone of the NigerianState: What do Niger
Deltans want? Put differently, the question could be: What should the NigerianState do for the Niger Delta? The
question popped up in exasperation, I suppose. To ask this question some 60 odd
years after the Oloibiri discovery shows we haven’t come to terms with the
tragic circumstances of the Niger Delta.

If we want to play on
words, these questions could be posed in different ways. The first proposition
is that what the people want is different from what they have been given.
Another flip is that they have been given enough and should just shut up and
get on with life. It could also mean that citizens from other parts of the
country genuinely want to know what people of the region want. Whatever meaning
we give to the question, the plight of the Niger Delta is a sore point in the
history of our country.

The question got me
thinking though. Is it true that the corridors of power do not know what is
good for the region? Have Deltans articulated their wants in the Nigerian
polity? What about the tonnes of literature that led to the creation of the
NDDC, and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs dating from the 1950s? If the
Niger Delta had a son of theirs for five full years in charge of the Nigerian
Presidency, do we still as Niger Deltans have the right to complain? In other
words, if in five years a Nigerian President of Niger Delta extraction could
not chart the course to national transformation, who else can? If past
governors of the states in the region did not use funds allocated to them
judiciously, how are we sure that resource control would yield anything
different?

I will summarise my submission with an anecdote:
Communities which live in abject poverty in spite of billions of dollars that
have been sucked from their soil and which still hold billions of dollars in
gas reserves are in dire straits. Simply put, the Niger Delta needs a
transformation of the environment and infrastructure of the land that has given
so much wealth to the Nigerian federation. Either by design or default, we have
not been able to achieve this. This is sad, tragic and alarming.

Oneof the fortunes of
my frequent travels is that I meet fascinating people at different locations,
even when I have no inkling of the possibility of such encounters. In stops in
such cities as Los Angeles, Abuja, San Francisco, Johannesburg, London, Washington,
DC, Houston and Austin, Texas, I have met classmates from my elementary,
secondary school and college days, childhood playmates, former students of
mine, elders who knew my parents before they were married, those who knew me as
a snotty nosed, impish child, and folks with whom I had communicated for years,
by email or telephony.

Last week, I put
out a notice on Facebook and Twitter that I was spending a month in Pittsburgh, PA,
to give several workshops and lectures as well as present my memoir, Never
Look an American in the Eye: Flying
Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American. I received a note from Ndaeyo
Uko, once one of Nigeria’s
wittiest and most popular columnists, who is now an academic in Australia.
Ndaeyo, who was a star writer at The Guardian and Daily Times, now holds a PhD.
For his dissertation, he researched the daredevil motley of adventurers and
philanthropists, who discounted unimaginable risks to ferry food and, in some
cases, arms, into Biafra during Nigeria’s
ruinous thirty-month civil war.

Ndaeyo’s message
was simple: I was not to miss the opportunity, before leaving Pittsburgh,
of meeting David Koren, an American, who was part of that team of expatriates –
Americans, the British, and Europeans – who, at grave risks to life and limb,
undertook the perilous missions to fly-smuggle relief into Biafra.
He explained that he had flown from Australia
to Pittsburgh to
interview Mr. Koren – and had found his recollections memorable.

Via email, Ndaeyo introduced me to the rescue activist. Mr. Koren and I then
spoke over the phone. I told him I was a child of the Biafran War, and directed
him to a link to my piece titled “My Biafran Eyes,” a series of vignettes based
on my childhood recollections. On reading my essay, he responded, “I read ‘My
Biafran Eyes.’ It was a touching story.”

Last Saturday, Mr.
Koren (accompanied by his wife, Kay) and I met at a bookstore run by the City
of Asylum, the organisation that arranged for my
monthlong fellowship in Pittsburgh.
It was an emotional experience, for both of us.

Monday, February 27, 2017

The
international human rights outfit, Amnesty International (AI), has engaged the
Nigerian military authorities in a war of wits, accusations and
counter-accusations since our armed forces embraced a full-scale campaign to
overcome the Boko Haram Islamist threat inNorthern Nigeria.

The
first sign of tension emerged shortly after former President Goodluck Jonathan,
in January 2014, signed the bill outlawing homosexuality (especially gay
marriage) inNigeria.
Most Western countries and local and international organisations (such as civil
society groups which they fund) propagating their mostly alien and unacceptable
values in the Third World suddenly became hostile toNigeria,
particularly the Jonathan regime.

They
directly and indirectly added their voices to the growing anti-Jonathan
opposition, especially those based in the North which were perceived as using
the Boko Haram terrorists as a political tool to oust Jonathan and grab
political power. AI, which had harshly criticised the anti-gay law, descended
heavily on the Nigerian Army. AI was no longer interested in the horrendous
activities of Boko Haram, which were sacking villages and communities,
slaughtering people like animals and carting away women whom they dehumanised
just as they liked.

These
did not matter to AI. Instead, AI beamed its activities on the so-called human
rights of Boko Haram fighters killed or captured during operations. Many
Nigerians saw AI’s slur campaign against the Nigerian Armed Forces as
ill-motivated, hostile and malicious, perhaps due to the anti-gay law. It
seemed to meld with the strange reluctance of the President Barack Obama regime
to recognise Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist outfit, which also manifested in
its refusal to sell arms toNigeriato prosecute the war on terror.

Obama’sAmericaand its non-state sidekick, the AI,
seemed unwilling to even helpNigeriain coping with our explosive
humanitarian crisis concerning the internally-displaced persons. Rather, their
own headache was the “human rights” of terrorists and the demonisation of our
military. Following the change of government on May 29th 2015, and the
assumption of power by retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the mindset and
combat reflexes of our armed forces underwent a sudden psychedelic shift.

As All Progressives Congress (APC) governments at all levels in many places, not all, strike a pitiable or pitiful
sight, it is impossible not to be overwhelmed by emotions.

So much goodwill, so much hope, so
much disappointment and, now, so much anger! All within two years!

*Bola Tinubu

But blame the people first.

The climate in which the party
thrived ahead of the 2015 elections was only genuinely ripe for deceit and
empty promises by any candidate who could successfully inflame emotions, escape
rigorous scrutiny even as he basked in ignorance of or poor preparation for the
enormity of the task ahead.

Having been short-changed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for 16 years
and particularly the Goodluck Jonathan-led brigandage, the people had every
cause to abandon reason and hold on to emotions, such fertile breeding ground
for gullibility.

Houses for all who had no shelter.
Money for those who were out of jobs, for widows and the disadvantaged.
Abundant life for the weak and vulnerable, the APC promised it all.

But what could compel disbelief
more than the promises the party made then? What should have set the alarm
ringing that Nigeria
was in for a fantasy ride into fallacy than the promise of millions of jobs in
a year? Should the promissory note on which the idea of social security-like
payments to the poor was written not have been trashed by a discerning people?
What could be less convincing than the avowal of true federalism in the
manifesto of a party whose leading lights shunned the finest attempts yet at
beginning the journey as represented by the 2014 National Conference?

Under normal circumstances, such
promises as APC made would have been subjected to the most rigorous interrogation
by the media and the people. But such was the incompetence of the then
government and the odium of its ways that the more unbelievable the alternative
was, the greater its appeal.

More importantly, that alternative
had a political master gladiator as its leading salesman.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu had long
established himself as a smart political tactician and grand strategist long
before he teamed up with Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 presidential election.
He ran a good shop in Lagos,
laid a good foundation for its development and entrenched a succession scheme
that has worked very well so far. He perfected the art of surrounding himself
with the best and the brightest and had constantly expanded the pool of talents
from which he has always picked the most suitable for any assignment.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Fellow Nigerians,
something major is happening in our dear beloved country and it is very
positive. Every disappointment they say is a blessing. While we are very sad
that our President, Muhammadu Buhari, has not been feeling too well for some
time now and needs treatment and recuperation abroad, I now believe that God
wants him to also have some time for sober and deep reflection. Someone asked
me about two weeks ago, on Twitter if I have given up on the Buhari government?
My answer was an emphatic NO! And the reason I gave was simple and
straight-forward enough: I believe in miracles.

*Buhari and Osinbajo

What has happened in
Nigeria
in the past few weeks, even days, can only be a testimony to that miracle I
prophesised. When President Buhari left Nigeria he formally wrote to the
Senate putting his Vice-President in charge as Acting President until he
returns. That singular act which is merely a repetition of what was done during
previous extended personal visits abroad by the President is salutary as it is
stellar and itself heralded the transformation in this government that we are
witnessing. It seems to me that President Buhari knew that his government
needed some change in direction, some fillip, and in his infinite wisdom chose
a subtle way to initiate that change without seeming to jettison his kitchen
cabinet.

When I flew out of Lagos to Johannesburg
last Monday, February 20, 2017,
a US dollar was selling for about 520 naira in the
omnipotent black market. As at Thursday, it was selling at around 475 Naira. By
yesterday, Friday 24 February 2017 the Naira was exchanging at about 460 Naira
to the Dollar. What a difference a week makes. This
remarkable resurgence of the Naira is coming on the heels of new policies and
directives that the CBN has been mandated to put in place by the rejuvenated
economic team that the Acting President is the driving force.

Not just that, I
received a report from Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi that the Acting President,
Professor Yemi Osinbajo, paid an unscheduled visit to the MurtalaMuhammedInternationalAirport
on Thursday, February 23, 2016, and caught the airport officials napping. My
joy knew no bounds. Only last Saturday, I had complained bitterly about that
unfortunate airport on this very page.

In the past seven
years, I must have written countless times about that that gory airport. It was
one of the reasons I disliked President Jonathan’s government because it had
done a wishy-washy renovation of the place and was celebrating it as if we can
now compete with some of the best airports in Africa (note that I did not
mention Dubai, Europe or America). I
took pictures of dead escalators, comatose elevators, jet bridges in blatant
darkness, leaking roofs, cranky conveyor belts, flooded and stinking toilets,
murky basements, potential structural deficiencies from a disused underground
car park and generally an airport in various stages of disrepair, dilapidation
and decay. We did what we could to alert our leaders to the monumental disgrace
at that airport.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

By Reno
Omokri

With President
Muhammadu Buhari's lawyer's ₦500,000 'gift' to
Justice Adeniyi Ademola while the certificate case was being tried before that
judge and with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation's
Grasscuttergate scandal, can we all stop pretending and accept that the anti
corruption war is dead?

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai

I believe I now
know the reason why God allowed President Buhari to come back to power. It was
to expose him for who he really is. Not a saint, but a hypocrite!

A hypocrite of the highest order. A so called anti corruption
crusader who writes letters to cover his corrupt Secretary to the Government of
the Federation and whose lawyer gives gifts to a justice that is being tried
for collecting gifts from others. Do as I say, not as I do!

Things were already
bad enough until the President's spokesman released his statement trying to
justify the 'gift'!

When Femi Adesina,
President Muhammadu Buhari's spokesman, says PMB's lawyers ₦500,000 payment to
Justice Ademola was a 'gift' not a bribe he must think that Nigerians are on
the bottom of the ladder in the rational thinking food chain!

So if I take a bribe
and call it a 'gift', according to Femi Adesina, it automatically transforms
from corruption to 'gift'? So President Buhari believes in the Transformation
Agenda after all! Who would have thought so!

So why can
President Buhari's lawyer give gifts but Andrew Yakubu cannot accept 'gift'?
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should just release everybody they
are trying because they took 'gifts' not bribe. After all, President Buhari and
his lawyer have shown us the way!

The Justice Ademola
that is currently being tried is accused of taking bribes because people gave
him gifts. So why were their gifts proceeds of corruption and Lawyer Awodein's
(Buhari's lawyer) a proceed of friendship?

Friday, February 24, 2017

By Toyin Dawodu

There is a saying in YorubaLand: “Orun a re mabo.”

Translation:
No one comes back from the dead.

Buhari may not be dead, but he might as well be – too sick to
rule, too greedy to leave.

*Buhari

Do I wish Buhari dead? Hell no! I wish him well. But as the
president of Nigeria,
he needs to either serve in his full capacity as president, or immediately
resign. There is no third option here, at least not one that benefits
Nigerians.

For weeks, Buhari’s administration has been reporting that he is
healthy, that he is simply on an extended trip to London for medical tests. He has been away
for weeks, and his administration is unwilling or unable to tell Nigerians if
or when their president will return, according to theLA
Times.

So, what we know for sure is even if Buhari is not sick - which is
improbable, considering his appearance of late - and he is just more
comfortable spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on his current medical
tour instead of getting these “medical tests” done at theState
House Clinic Abuja, the fact remains he so preoccupied with
his health that he is unable to lead his country. And Nigeria does
not seem to have another leader poised to take his place.

The ruling party of Zimbabwe is reportedly looking to
spend some $2.5 million on President Robert Mugabe’s 93rd birthday celebration
on February 21, a
media report said on Wednesday.

“Each
of the ten provinces is expected to [participate in raising the] $2.5 million for
the ceremony.

“They
expect to raise it through provincial structures, individuals, private
companies, parastatals and local authorities,” Zanu PF party officials said.

However,
opposition parties have attacked Mugabe for wasting money on extravagant
revelry while “93% of Zimbabweans are
wallowing in poverty caused by his incompetence and misrule”, NewZimbabwe.com reported.

By
Dr. Arthur Agwuncha NwankwoRecently, a senior official of the Buhari
administration came out on national television to tell us that Nigeria
is now the second largest producer of rice in the world. This is the most
ridiculous claim I have heard in the last couple of years.

*Dr. Nwankwo

I know that the
Buhari administration, even those that can be numbered among his kitchen
cabinet, is full of clowns and morons bereft of intellect; but honestly I didn’t know that somebody can be this
naïve and crass to come and tell us that Nigeria is a world class producer of
rice.

Why
do people lie so brazenly? Does he think that he is talking to kindergartens? I
do not understand why this government has made lying an article of faith and
governance. How can anybody in his right senses make such useless claim?

How
and where did he get the statistics? If his claim is true why is a bag of local
rice still going for between N18000 to N20000? If this claim were true why
would the UN only a few days ago, include Nigeria
among famine-threatened countries in Africa alongside Sudan and Somalia?

I
know that Nigeria
is not famous for statistical records. This is a country that does not know its
population; the number of unemployed graduates; the number of the poor; does
not even know the number of secondary schools in the country or anything for
that matter.

Yet
this is a country that wants to pay monthly stipends of N5000 to every
unemployed graduate and the poor. As a matter of fact, I have come to the
conclusion that APC is a fraud. Democracy is said to be government of the
people, by the people and for the people.

But
strangely, the APC government has become “government
of liars and thieves, by liars and thieves and for liars and thieves”. I
want you to understand that this type of APC government is the perfect setting
that creates deep-seated social resentment and which also leads to the
inevitable death of nations.

*Dr.
Nwankwo, an eminent intellectual, author and publisher shared these thoughts on
his facebook page

It was like a shuttle
in a projectile – let’s call it the BRF projectile. Of course, BRF being
Babatunde Raji Fashola, the three-in-one federal minister in charge of Power,
Works and Housing. He has been on a blitzing visit of major road projects
across the country. Starting a few weeks back with on-going roads in the
southeast zone of Nigeria, his last run was across seven states of the Niger
Delta – in three days.

*Fashola in Benue State (pix: Guardian)

As one of the
reporters in the shuttle, my verdict is: how not to work. Imagine starting a trip
by road from Calabar to Uyo, then Aba to
Yenegoa, Port Harcourt to Sapele and then Benin City – in just
three days!

On paper, it may look
easy and straight-forward, but out there on the poorly kept and dangerous
Nigerian roads, it surely is an excruciating way to carry out a task. Of
course, there are modern digital mapping devices that can locate projects even
in the most remote outposts and highlight them with real life high definition.
But understandably, such facilities are not available to the ministry right now
but that must be the way forward.

The first call of the inspection was the over 200 kilometres
Calabar – Akampa – Ikom – Ogoja – Ugep – Katsina-Ala highway. A long-winding,
seemingly interminable and indeed treacherous road. After travelling for about
two-hours of twisting and turning and side-tracking endless streaming of
heavy-duty trucks, it turned out that one of them had upended ahead before the
project site. BRF had to make a U-turn, missing the first target.

This road which
connects about four states and leads up to Makurdi in Benue State is as
strategic as highways go. It is a single-carriage road, which is bad enough;
but it is dilapidated and derelict in many sections. When the rains come,
according to CrossRiversState
deputy governor, many sections are flooded impassable.

The contractor, Messrs
Sermatech that had abandoned site for over two years for lack of payment is
back at work. He was mandated to commence remediation work quickly before the
rains. Important too is that hundreds of people are back to work once again:
goods and service will move and zonal economy will flourish.

From the Akwa Ibom
axis, the Ikot-Ekpene-Aba Road
has suffered total collapse at Umuakpo. The Minister had to do a detour through
bush paths and remote village tracks to re-enter the highway. This road that
connects two very important towns of Ikot-Ekpene in AkwaIbomState
and Aba in AbiaState
was also awarded but unfunded. The contractor abandoned site. They are back
now.

On the Aba-Port
Harcourt section of the now notorious Enugu-Port Harcourt highway, BRF and his
team did on foot, a very long stretch of the project under-going massive
renewal and expansion on foot. It has numerous on-site workers and as we
learnt, is generating hundreds of auxiliary jobs in material supplies, food and
drinks vending.

Since President
Buhari left Nigeria for London on medical leave,
over a month ago, Nigerians have been fed with differing and sometimes
conflicting statements over the health status of the number one citizen. And
because Buhari’s media handlers dish uncoordinated tales, which most Nigerians
now take with a pinch of salt, the rumour mills are agog with scary tales,
especially the uncontrolled social media, which the All Progressives Congress
(APC) used to its advantage to come to power in 2015.

*Buhari

The hapless citizens, after waiting anxiously for Buhari’s return,
which has no fixed date, have tended to believe information emanating from the
rumour mills. They no longer believe their government and its numerous
spokespersons because their chaotic tales sound like fiction to majority of
Nigerians. Rumour thrives in an atmosphere where facts are hoarded; where there
is attempt to misinform the people; and where truth is deliberately hidden or
utterly distorted. This is basically the corner the APC government has literally
boxed itself now.

When the president failed to return after the expiration of the
10-day’ vacation, Nigerians were told that he needs to do more medical tests as
advised by his doctors. While this drama was still unfolding, the presidency
insisted that the first citizen is ‘hale and hearty’, a phrase that is fast
losing its intended meaning in Nigeria’s
peculiar case. They even said that the president was not in any London hospital, that is to say that he was not
hospitalized but having a good rest at Nigeria’s
House in London.

When the president reportedly transmitted another letter to the National
Assembly asking for more time for another round of medical tests without
stating exactly when his leave will be over, the anxiety over his health status
heightened and Nigerians started asking questions which Aso Villa handlers were
unable to provide credible responses. Perhaps, they do not have adequate
information on the president’s illness or they are just hoarding it from
Nigerians or saying what they are asked to tell worried Nigerians.

Nigerians are more worried not because a president cannot be sick
or seek for better medical treatment abroad considering our comatose healthcare
system; they are worried because they have travelled this ugly path before when
former president Umaru Yar’Adua was sick and the details were hidden from
Nigerians. Incidentally, Buhari hails from the same KatsinaState
with Yar’Adua, although from Daura axis. During the Yar’Adua episode, those in
information apparatus of APC now then demanded for a daily update on Yar’Adua’s
illness, which is legitimate.

Most of the time, one
cannot but wonder if something is uniquely wrong with Nigeria’s destiny,
considering that any forward step she takes is immediately followed by a
thousand ones backward. We are one of the few countries whose leaders
unashamedly and openly display their complete lack of trust in their system and
in the country that they purport to lead; we are one of the few countries in
the world whose healthcare infrastructure is fitting only for their unlucky,
impoverished and forgotten citizens, and not their ruling class.

When would folks
ruling us realise that the healthcare systems they admire and run to each time
they are ill are made possible by fellow humans in positions of public trust,
just like them? When would our clueless and hypocritical ruling class realise
that Nigeria
is blessed with top talents capable of replicating same medical feats available
in these foreign lands that they constantly run to? When would the ruling class
come to its senses, think right and do right? Are these folks so clueless as to
not know that some of the top talents in these foreign lands – doctors,
PhD-level scientists and engineers – are Nigerian-born and Nigerian-educated?
As such, the problem is not the ruled, but the rulers.

The doctors in these foreign hospitals
do not have higher IQs than most of the doctors in Nigeria; the doctors in the U.K for
example, are able to provide better care and cure more diseases simply because
they have access to more advanced medical facilities at their hospitals.
Period.

We are probably the only country
on earth, whose number one public figure could just leave the citizens guessing
and wondering, even in the midst of what I consider the worst economic
recession of the country’s life time. Our currency has plummeted by more than
150 percent in the last sixteen months with no halt in sight and with no
coherent explanations from people in-charge.

The
Letter by President Muhammadu Buhari which was read on the Floor of the
Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, January 24, 2017, clearing the Acting Chairman of
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),Mr. Ibrahim Magu and the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal has finally confirmed our earlier
assertion that the ‘Anti-Corruption War’ of the APC led administration is a
ruse; a witch-hunting mechanism to harass PDP members and perceived enemies of
this administration.

It
is no longer news that all those who are serving in the government of President
Muhammadu Buhari or who are members of his Party, the All Progressive Congress
(APC) within the last two years of his administration have all been cleared of
any wrong doing; notwithstanding documentary and other incontrovertible
evidences to the contrary. The Presidency in today’s dispensation is the
‘Judicial Clearing House’ issuing clean bill of health to all accused corrupt
officials who are members of the APC and friends of the administration.

It
is quite disturbing that the President cleared his SGF of wrong doing despite
the weighty evidences of his “Grass-cutting abilities” uncovered by the Senate
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, implicating Babachir of complicity in the
Award of Contract relating to the IDP Camp in Borno State amounting to over 200
million Naira.

It
is more worrisome that Mr. President made light of the DSS Report which
directly indicted the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu of several
unwholesome and corrupt practices in the line of his duties. President Buhari
saw nothing wrong in the Report but was quick to order the invasion of Judges
homes in a Gestapo and commando-style following the Same DSS report. What a
double standard! It appears that the APC led government is implementing two
constitutions in Nigeria;
one for the PDP and other opposition parties and their leaders while the other
is for the Ruling Party, the APC and friends of this administration.

Again
in 2016, General Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff was cleared of all
accusations even with convincing evidence of owning choice properties in Dubai
beyond his income; and also overwhelming evidence of misdeeds while serving as
Director of Procurement in the last administration.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

We have culture and
tradition in this country that we must not allow to die. The Federal
Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, needs to
reconsider the implications of Big Brother Naija on our culture and youths.

The content of Big Brother
Naija reality show is alien to our culture. This show is contrary to the rich
cultural values we are trying to promote and bring to the front burner.

It is sad that our
young children including adults are made to watch such content. This kind of
programme promotes obscenity and immorality. We must not encourage such if our
hallowed cultural heritage would be preserved. We cannot prevent our
inquisitive young ones from watching the obscene displays that permeate the
show.

I think the Nigeria
Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should, without delay, stop this programme if
this government means business in the promotion of our cultural values.

By Femi Fani Kayode

Permit me to begin
this contribution with an interesting and historically accurate observation
made by the Vanguard Newspaper on 3rd February 2015.

*Buhari

They wrote: "Between
1983 and 1985, Peter Onu of Nigeria
was Acting Secretary-General of the OAU.

“At the 1985
Summit in Addis Ababa,
statesmen like Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, lobbied for his election
as substantive Secretary-General.

“However,
there was a major stumbling block to Peter Onu’s candidature: his Head of
State, Muhammadu Buhari, was campaigning against him.

“Buhari
claimed: ‘This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no
other country than Nigeria.’

“But when
the crunch came, his allegiance to Nigeria disappeared. In the
election of the OAU Secretary-General in 1985, Buhari voted against Nigeria and for Niger instead.

“He secured
the election of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani man from Niger;
as opposed to an Igbo man from Nigeria.

“By so
doing, Buhari became the first and only Head of State in the history of modern
international relations to vote against his country in favour of his
tribe".

Graphically illustrated and succinctly put, that is the mindset
of the quintessential General Muhammadu Buhari for you. Yet even in his
triumphs and all his glory he has suffered immense pain and his challenges and
travails are legion.

Consider the following. In 1983 he toppled the much-loved
democratically-elected civilian President Shehu Shagari in a military coup and
became Head of State.

He ruled with an iron fist for exactly 20 months (31st Dec
1983 - 27th August 1985) after which he himself was overthrown in another
military coup led by his erstwhile and again much-loved Chief of Army Staff,
General Ibrahim Babangida. Thereafter he was detained for three years in Benin City.

Exactly 30 years after he was removed from power in 2015 he
was "elected" civilian President on the platform of the APC.

Once again he presided over the affairs of our country for
another 20 months (29th May 2015 - 19th January 2017) until he was struck by an
undisclosed yet strange and debilitating illness, fell gravely ill, was
compelled to formally transmit his presidential powers to the Vice President,
was rushed to the United Kingdom where, up until today, he has remained
incommunicado and on "indefinite medical leave".

Nigeria parades a plethora of
unflattering socioeconomic indices. With a poverty head count of 53.9%, the
population of the poor in Nigeria of about 100 million is more than the whole
population of Egypt(93m), United Kingdom (65m), France (64m) , Turkey (79m),
Democratic Republic of Congo(79m) among others. Nigeria’s
Human Development Index value for 2015 of 0.514 is below the average for
sub-Saharan Africa, putting the country in the
low human development category, positioning it at 152 out of 188 countries and
territories under the UNDP ranking.

Nigeria’s life expectancy at
birth of 52.8 years is among the worst in the world compared to 60.6 years
average for other low HDI countries and 64.1 years for Ethiopia and
58.7 years for Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Economic Forum uses
Human Capital Report to rank countries on how well they are deploying their
peoples’ talents. The index takes a life-course approach to human capital,
evaluating the levels of education, skills and employment. The 2016 Human
Capital Report ranked Nigeria
127 out of 130 countries, the worst country in Africa except for Chad and Mauritania.

Juxtaposed with these
bleak statistics is monumental profligacy enshrined in our ethos and
manifesting in the debasement and perversion of our cultural values. We
habitually squander scarce resources on our routine household and business
tasks, on parties and celebrations.

According to experts,
for every one million population 1000 megawatts of electricity is required to
satisfy every need. With a population of about 180 million, Nigeria’s optimum power requirement is about
180,000MW compared to more than 50,000MW that South Africa, with a population of
53 million, generates and distributes. Ironically, enormous amount of the
grossly inadequate energy is being wasted. A study carried out by LagosState
revealed that 4,358Kwh of electricity is wasted annually. By switching to
energy saving bulbs only, N12.7 billion could be saved in LagosState
alone. Only 1% of Lagosians practise energy conservation leaving the planet
groaning with 9.5 billion pounds of carbon footprints per annum.

What eminently
captures the tragedy of contemporary Nigeria is that its citizens who
lack a huge helping from the national treasury are vulnerable to being haunted
at home and abroad. Overwhelmed by the hostility of their home country sired by
decades of the monumental failure of government, they go overseas with the hope
of finding succour. But here a bleaker fate awaits them as their supposed host
becomes their haunter.

Nigerians could bear
their tragic lot if there were no expectations of warm reception in the first
place. And these expectations were by no means misplaced. In the case of
Nigerians in South Africa
they justifiably expected to be treated well. Clearly, Nigerians who are in South Africa
have only gone to reap where their country has sown. The resources of Nigeria were
used to secure South Africans freedom from the apartheid stranglehold.

Notwithstanding,
Nigerians have not asked to be allowed to enjoy the benefits of staying in South Africa
without bringing their own contributions to the development of the society.
Most of the Nigerians who are being harassed are effectively contributing to
the economy of their host country. They are running their legitimate
businesses. It is these businesses and the lives of Nigerians that often come
under attacks. If there were some Nigerians who violated the laws of South Africa,
these should be punished and every Nigerian should not be treated as a villain.
But we should be alert to the possibility that these recurring attacks are
being provoked by South Africans’ envy of the success of their guests. Or why
do these South Africans often target Nigerians’ shops for looting?

The South Africans who do not know how to use their post-apartheid freedom over
two decades after blacks took the reins of governance should be humble enough
to ask enterprising Nigerians in their midst to teach them how to be successful
in their own country. South Africans should not blame Nigerians if their lack
of competitiveness makes the latter to take over their jobs. If these
attack-obsessed South Africans were profitably engaged, they would not have the
time to trouble Nigerians. So instead of being befuddled by the allegations of
Nigerians being criminals, prostitutes and drug dealers, the South African
government should find ways to profitably engage its citizens.

Optimism about an easy
resolution of this crisis would not have been out of place if it were only the
younger generation who do not know their history that are responsible for the
xenophobic attacks. But apparently, these young people are perpetrating these
attacks with tacit official approval. This explains why when these attacks
occur, the police do not come to the rescue of Nigerians. Apparently, the
police see these attacks as a fulfillment of their wish that Nigerians be
subjected to such brutalities. This is because the South African police have on
several occasions brutalised Nigerians to death.

Re: Respect
Appeal Court Ruling, Don’t Heat Up The Polity –
Okorocha…This Is Another Confirmation That Sheriff Is A Lackey Of The APC – PDP

*Sheriff

The
attention of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by
Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, CON, has been drawn to the statement credited
to the Governor of Imo State and Chairman of APCGovernor’s Forum, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, wherein he said the
PDP should respect the ruling of the Friday, February 17, 2017 Court of Appeal
Judgment and not to heat up the polity.

2.
This statement coming from Okorocha is not all that
surprising. He is not known to be a person who exercises caution or restraint
before making unguarded statements. His constant vituperation on matters small
or big is indicative of an over excited mind desperately in need of a large
dose of tranquilizer. It is curious that while he would want the PDP to
accept the verdict of the court of Appeal and not exercise its right of appeal
to the Supreme Court, he was nowhere to be found when Sheriff refused to accept
the judgment of the Federal High Court in Port
Harcourt but instead proceeded to the court of appeal.
In any case, what is Okorocha’s special interest in the PDP matter? Need
Nigerians any further conviction that the APC is the unseen hand stoking the
fire of crisis in the PDP and Sheriff and his cohorts mere puppets in their
hands?

3.
The desperate attempt by APC to exonerate itself only further
exposed its duplicity. The Police excuse for preventing a peaceful assembly of
distinguished PDP members on alleged but unproven “security threat ” is an
insult to the intelligence of Nigerians. It is the duty of the Police to
provide security if they suspect any breach of peace . It is a gross abnegation
of its responsibilities to prevent people from exercising their
constitutionally guaranteed right of peaceful assembly. No one is in
doubt today that the Police has submitted itself to total control and direction
by the APC.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

During a state banquet
in Pretoria, South
Africa, in April 2015, I had a brief encounter with Grace
Mugabe, the first lady of Zimbabwe.
I was asking her husband, Robert Mugabe, about the question of her succeeding
him as president. “She doesn’t have those ambitions,” began Mugabe, the
spectacles perched on his nose reminiscent of an elderly librarian, a narrow
moustache clinging to his upper lip like a caterpillar.

*Grace Mugabe

Suddenly he interrupted himself with mock
alarm: “Careful, there she comes!” The frail 91-year-old, who increasingly
resembles a hanger for his well-tailored suits, remained seated. I rose and
turned to behold his 49-year-old wife, with her cropped hair and long black
dress, lace hanging daintily at the wrist. Grace, who had been the subject of
persistent gossip about a serious illness, was returning from an interlude on
the dancefloor that delighted dinner guests.
“Hello, David Smith of the Guardian. We were just talking about you.”

“I
just wanted to ask you if it’s true you might like to be president one day,” I
asked.

Her
hard features, which can resemble a mask with striking dark eyes and sculpted
cheekbones, dissolved into a laugh. She did not deny it. “I don’t know, I don’t
know.”

Just then a band struck up and I beat a
retreat, past the glares of South African protocol mandarins, one of whom
ordered me to leave, snarling: “I hope we never see you again.”

Few
women in Africa provoke such fascination, or
such loathing, as Grace Mugabe. Loyalists describe her as “Amai” (Mother), “The
Lady of the Revelation” or, predictably, “Amazing Grace”, while detractors prefer
“DisGrace”, “Gucci Grace” or “First Shopper”. There are reports that the couple
have substantial foreign properties and multiple offshore bank accounts,
Grace’s overseas shopping expeditions are legendary: she was widely reported to
have spent £75,000 on luxury goodsin one dayin Paris
in 2003, and to have taken 15 trolley-loads of purchases into the first-class
lounge of Singapore
airport. She has been forced to deny rumours that she has been unfaithful to
the president and defends herself against accusations that she is pampered and
lazy.

The
four-decade age difference between her and her husband has invited urgent
questions about what will happen to her after his death. She stands to lose the
presidential credit card and possibly the luxurious mansion in the Zimbabwean
capital, Harare.
She has grown up in a country where proximity to power is no guarantee of
survival, and knows how quickly loyalties can turn. Mugabe’s long years of
cunning divide and conquer have left the ruling Zanu-PFparty and the country
without an obvious successor, creating an atmosphere among the ruling elite
that seethes with mutual suspicion and treachery, and bitter factional
divisions.

Grace
had always appeared acquiescent, an adornment, mother of the president’s
children. No one, until now, considered that she might have political
ambitions. But late last year, the world met a new Grace Mugabe. Suddenly,
without warning, she transformed from smiling president’s wife to political
player in her own right. In early December, she was elevated to a senior role
in Zanu-PF and confirmed as the new head of its women’s league. She then
embarked on a national promotional trip, nicknamed the “Graceland
tour”, flying across the country to attend a series of rallies, where she
delivered tirades against her husband’s perceived enemies. At one of the
rallies, Grace made her agenda clear. She declared: “They say I want to be
president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?”

The
political establishment was rocked back on its heels. Ibbo Mandaza, a former
civil servant who has known the president and his wife for years, said: “Grace
was always sedate, sitting in the background looking beautiful. Then suddenly
this woman is someone else you can’t recognise. She was uncouth, unbecoming.”